Our greatest health mistake

February 9, 2017

We need to dodge our biggest health mistake for our children. It’s a horrific injustice and we all need to get with the program ASAP.

The b.goal is to get our kids in Australia and around the world a better knowlegde of health. I am starting small : student by student: year by year and its building slowly a genuine base of people to help me on this health quest. I have seen children’s health and fitness diminish rapidly in the past 14 years as a Health and Physical Education teacher. It keeps me up at night as I am so deeply concerned about our children.

Let’s narrow it down to two key factors as to why our children health is diminishing:

➕There is a lack of valuable knowledge about our body and health and how to look at food and wellness simply.

➕An understanding that fitness is a fun body and mind necessity.

1. Health knowledge about food and how to make good food choices; how to understand cravings; how to understand food advertising and seeing food as an excellent fuel for body and mind rather than a need to satisfy or fast fix for unhappiness.

Making fitness fun, making sport a joy as it is not always about competing to win; it’s about looking after our bodies by working out. Not just by competing in a sport, it’s about health and whole body wellness to maintain our muscles and blood flow. We tend to put such a focus on the fact of ‘being in winner’ rather than the value of fitness training in a group or sport being a fun activity.

We seem to have lost the fact, that food is a body fuel and helps us get energy, it also brings us joy as we taste the texture and happiness that surrounds food. Eg. family time, parties, social occasions and simply living well.

We must seek to find the foods that make us feel well, not foods that satisfy and this is the trickiest thing to teach children. We live in a want need world of ‘click bait’ where we can simply click and see something that entices our needs and it baits us into thinking we must have it now. This happens with food on every single media outlet.

‘Food is either fuel or poison to your body’. b. x

b.truth: I used to poison my body daily unaware I was even doing it. I did not know how to look after myself and nobody spoke of it. I had a coach that one day said ‘you are poisoning yourself’ I scoffed at the thought … what by eating this… before training? …but I’ll burn it off it only has …blah blah calories ect.

NO! he said ‘it is not about that!’.

I needed immediately to find out more…he said, ‘feel your body and take note of what happens’.

He was right every single time I ate this particular combination of food (roast beef wrap with cheese and salad, milk, and a huge bunch of grapes. I got a headache, I trained sluggish, I slept badly and I had days of constipation.

It was poisoning me. My body simply could not cope with the combination. My stomach acid could not break it down, causing a massive chemical reaction in my body and my body working overtime to rid the problem I had ingested. It was not a healthy body because I had forgotten to feel my body.

Unfortunately we lost the real fact of just ‘being healthy’.

What is healthy? and what does it look like?

Well this question is one I ask children every time I teach a new group. I like to hear their answers. What do you think healthy looks like? When asked children there are a multitude of unique answers.

Some name athletes like: ~ Usian Bolt or Gary Ablett some say ‘muscle bulging people’ (kid speak) … or body builders. Some kids say Ironman or Olympians but generally they say an athlete. They believe moving and winning is healthy. They rarely say their parents, or themselves and this is because most children can recognize ‘unhealthy’ but cannot distinctly describe healthy this is where the link and the greatest aspect our children are missing.

I then ask them are they healthy? … Many children do not see themselves as healthy why? Well because they think they need to look a certain way. This saddens me! They think they need to be on a diet, they think they need to be like Mum or Dad counting calories or weighting them selves. This saddens me further. They think a six pack is healthy.

Rarely do we really SEE health; because health is a feeling. Health can’t be seen but only lived in. Health is NOT a six pack nor is it floppy. Health is a feeling of optimal body function. Meaning, your brain is well; your overall body has no injury or sickness. You feel energized; your muscles and bones move freely & smoothly. Your internal body function and bowel are without issues. You eat regularly, you prefer nourishment of fruits and vegetables. You are happy and bright. You smile easily. This is healthy.

As a community and role models for children; we need to ensure we teach this this very fact above. What health is… because right now our children are lost and until we sort this out our children’s future will not be easy.

Let’s make a new family goal; let make a new pack together. No more diets, no more calorie counting, macro madness or any other aspects that makes our future children question themselves. Let’s show them the real way to health, by giving factual knowledge about food as fuel, talk about body function, talk about how the food makes them feel, talk and move together as a family; move our bodies for fun. If we can solve this just by talking; just by awareness and by doing it together we can change our children future today and give them overall body mind benefits to allow them their best health future.

One thought on “Our greatest health mistake”

Thanks for sharing, I have two kids about the same age as yours and would be interested in any lunch box ideas you might have for them. I try to fuel them with smoothies (healthy kid before their sport training) but am always looking out for ideas and how others feed their kids. I would love it if my kids had you as a teacher but we live in Perth. Have a great week love you work👍🏻💕